VINHEDO (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Aug 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An airplane carrying 57 passengers and four crew members crashed on Friday in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state, killing everyone on board, the airline said.
The aircraft, an ATR 72-500 operated by Voepass airline, was travelling from Cascavel in southern Parana state to Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos international airport when it crashed in the city of Vinhedo.
Voepass initially said flight 2283 was carrying 58 passengers, but a statement on the airline’s website later revised the figure to 57.
Images broadcast on local media showed a large plane spinning as it plummeted almost vertically, while other footage showed a large column of smoke rising from the crash site in what appeared to be a residential area.
“There were no survivors,” the city government in Valinhos – which was involved in the rescue and recovery operation in nearby Vinhedo – said.
Vinhedo, with about 76,000 residents, is located approximately 80km northwest of Sao Paulo.
Recovery of the victims’ remains for “identification” has begun and “will continue throughout the night”, Sao Paulo State Governor Tarcisio de Freitas told reporters at the scene.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of mourning.
Voepass said it was cooperating with authorities to “determine the causes of the accident”, while giving full assistance to families of the victims on flight 2283.
The plane, a twin-engine turboprop, took off “without any flight restrictions, with all its systems operational”, the company said.
Brazil’s CENIPA aviation accident agency has launched an investigation.
ATR, a Franco-Italian aircraft maker and Airbus subsidiary, said its experts were working to help investigators.
Firefighters, military police and state civil defence were deployed at the scene.
Military police told local media the accident had not caused any casualties on the ground, and that the fire sparked by the crash had been brought under control.
The plane’s black box “has already been found, apparently preserved”, Sao Paulo state security official Guilherme Derrite told reporters at the scene.
The doomed plane recorded its first flight in April 2010, according to the website planespotters.net.
Excluding Friday’s crash, CENIPA data shows Brazil has recorded 108 aircraft accidents so far this year, resulting in 49 deaths. Over the last 10 years, 746 people have died in 1,665 accidents in the country. — NNN-AGENCIES
